TX peeps can you help me with nursing school options?

[Scarlett]

My sister in Houston is trying to help her youngest daughter make a plan for school.  She thinks she wants to go into nursing.  From what my sister is describing it is much more difficult there than the program my niece in AR did.....my niece was an LPN and now is doing a work to RN program.....she is able to work and go to class 2 evenings a week.  And it is a year long program.  

I am betting there is a similar way to do it in TX.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle]

It depends.  The only LPN to Rn program here just gets you out of a semester.  After that you’re attending class two days, two full days of clinical and one lab a week.   Nursing school is the equivalent of a full time job at most colleges.  

[TheReader]

UH has a condensed program, I think one year, but it's for those with already some college/or already a degree, and it's a full time job. I am certain they offer traditional pathways, too, though I have no idea how flexible they might be.

Many of the community colleges in TX offer various nursing degrees, including they've just been allowed to offer 4 yr degrees (and nursing is one that most offer).  In the Houston area, I'd check programs at San Jacinto College (various campuses; a cousin & a good friend both went through that program), Lone Star College; Houston Community College. Depending on which side of Houston, also Lee College (Baytown), College of the Mainland (TX City/Galveston area), Wharton County Junior College (Sugar Land area).  

But, from what I understand, most are going to be pretty full time. Class time, lab time, clinicals.....there's really not time to work also, I don't think. 

[Rebel]

I know that both the LVN and RN nursing programs at Austin Community College require several prerequisite courses before being admitted to the program. The only alternate path that I know of is for those working in other areas of health science. This might help provide some more information.

https://sites.austincc.edu/health/nursing/

[Scarlett]

6 minutes ago, TheReader said:

UH has a condensed program, I think one year, but it's for those with already some college/or already a degree, and it's a full time job. I am certain they offer traditional pathways, too, though I have no idea how flexible they might be.

Many of the community colleges in TX offer various nursing degrees, including they've just been allowed to offer 4 yr degrees (and nursing is one that most offer).  In the Houston area, I'd check programs at San Jacinto College (various campuses; a cousin & a good friend both went through that program), Lone Star College; Houston Community College. Depending on which side of Houston, also Lee College (Baytown), College of the Mainland (TX City/Galveston area), Wharton County Junior College (Sugar Land area).  

But, from what I understand, most are going to be pretty full time. Class time, lab time, clinicals.....there's really not time to work also, I don't think. 

Well the niece in Houston doesn't need to work, I was just telling about my niece in AR for a reference point.  But if she goes to a CC I would think she could get her LPN in 2 years.  Right?  And since this girl is not super academic maybe she should just work for a bit after she gets her LPN.

My older niece in Houston did the whole 4 year thing and got her BSN.

[Faith-manor]

24 minutes ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle said:

It depends.  The only LPN to Rn program here just gets you out of a semester.  After that you’re attending class two days, two full days of clinical and one lab a week.   Nursing school is the equivalent of a full time job at most colleges.  

Same here. And most of our hospitals wants BSRN's not ADN's which is the shorter program of the two.

[TheReader]

4 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

Well the niece in Houston doesn't need to work, I was just telling about my niece in AR for a reference point.  But if she goes to a CC I would think she could get her LPN in 2 years.  Right?  And since this girl is not super academic maybe she should just work for a bit after she gets her LPN.

My older niece in Houston did the whole 4 year thing and got her BSN.

Yes, the CC plans would be 2 yrs for the whichever one is an associates, or they also now offer the 4 yr RN route too. There should be lots of options for her if she doesn't mind staying home and going to school, and then Houston has a zillion or so options for clinicals -- that's the one thing to have them keep in mind; with a large metro area, she can be assigned almost anywhere, so when she gets to that point, she needs to be confident driving possibly to the other side of Houston, or to downtown, or to Ben Taub hospital, etc, etc., etc. for her rotations. Or Mom needs to be willing to drive her.  

 

[Faith-manor]

She might want to try CNA or medical assisting. A lot of hospitals have pushed LPN work down into those two fields, and then bumped up the Dh's and tuition assistance for RN's. My niece in law is an EKG and Lab Tech and has been given tuition assistance to go for her BSRN. Very very few LPN's employed in her seven hospital network. It seems like some states have seen a big change in the nursing profession in this regard. So I would encourage her to go LPN unless she can confirm that there is a lot of good employment opportunity for that in Texas. I think it will vary by region. The great thing about medical assisting is along with CNA it gives a sneak peak into whether or not they would truly enjoy nursing and they have so many colleagues to talk with about that.

[Scarlett]

4 minutes ago, TheReader said:

Yes, the CC plans would be 2 yrs for the whichever one is an associates, or they also now offer the 4 yr RN route too. There should be lots of options for her if she doesn't mind staying home and going to school, and then Houston has a zillion or so options for clinicals -- that's the one thing to have them keep in mind; with a large metro area, she can be assigned almost anywhere, so when she gets to that point, she needs to be confident driving possibly to the other side of Houston, or to downtown, or to Ben Taub hospital, etc, etc., etc. for her rotations. Or Mom needs to be willing to drive her.  

 

She is definitely staying home at least for the first 2 years.   And she drives all over creation so I don't think that will be an issue. She hasn't even taken her ACT yet so I am not sure what is going to happen with her.  

[Scarlett]

1 minute ago, Faith-manor said:

She might want to try CNA or medical assisting. A lot of hospitals have pushed LPN work down into those two fields, and then bumped up the Dh's and tuition assistance for RN's. My niece in law is an EKG and Lab Tech and has been given tuition assistance to go for her BSRN. Very very few LPN's employed in her seven hospital network. It seems like some states have seen a big change in the nursing profession in this regard. So I would encourage her to go LPN unless she can confirm that there is a lot of good employment opportunity for that in Texas. I think it will vary by region. The great thing about medical assisting is along with CNA it gives a sneak peak into whether or not they would truly enjoy nursing and they have so many colleagues to talk with about that.

Wait.  Is this a type?  Did you mean discourage?

[TheReader]

1 minute ago, Scarlett said:

She is definitely staying home at least for the first 2 years.   And she drives all over creation so I don't think that will be an issue. She hasn't even taken her ACT yet so I am not sure what is going to happen with her.  

Oh, the driving part is good, then. I've got 2 still reluctant to learn (at almost 17, and 21.....) so coming from that background. And heck, *I* am not sure I'd want to drive to Ben Taub if I didn't have to. But I'm glad she's confident driving; that will ease things. 

[Scarlett]

In my Googling, I found that the fastest way to get an LPN license is a vocational school...pretty sure a full time student could get their LPN in a year.  Am I just dreaming that?

[Faith-manor]

17 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

Wait.  Is this a type?  Did you mean discourage

Yes, I meant to say encourage her to try medical assisting or CNA first.

Sigh. Me and my kindle and my broken finger...typing is not my strong suit at the moment!

Sorry about that!

[TheReader]

This may be helpful info for you/your sister/niece: 

https://www.bestvalueschools.org/lpn-programs-in-houston-texas/

[Frances]

I think she should go and talk to an admissions/career counselor at the closest community college to get info about various healthcare careers and program options, including requirements and prerequisites. My niece didn’t do this, despite my repeated urging, and ended up failing out of an expensive 4 yr BSN program and is now, several years later, successfully completing a full-time CC RN program while working part time as a phlebotomist. And part of her tuition is paid by her employer.

If it wasn’t for the pandemic, I would also suggest job shadowing various healthcare professionals. Most hospitals have programs.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Frances

[plaidpants]

27 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

Yes, I meant to say encourage her to try medical assisting or CNA first.

Sigh. Me and my kindle and my broken finger...typing is not my strong suit at the moment!

Sorry about that!

Yes, I agree with that. Or a patient care tech. Or other allied health.

I'm not sure MD and PA even have new LPNs. There might be 2 (more like 3 or 4 with prereq) year RNs, but most are BSN or bridging those that only had a RN into BSN. All the community colleges have loads of allied health tech programs here.

[Scarlett]

30 minutes ago, Frances said:

I think she should go and talk to an admissions/career counselor at the closest community college to get info about various healthcare careers and program options, including requirements and prerequisites. My niece didn’t do this, despite my repeated urging, and ended up failing out of an expensive 4 yr BSN program and is now, several years later, successfully completing a full-time CC RN program while working part time as a phlebotomist. And part of her tuition is paid by her employer.

If it wasn’t for the pandemic, I would also suggest job shadowing various healthcare professionals. Most hospitals have programs.

My sister and older niece took younger niece to talk to a counselor yesterday about a dental assistant certification program....less than a year I think.  Weirdly enough the counselor talked her out of it!  By telling her that dental assistants don't get benefits.  

This child/young adult has shown little interest in getting ready to go to college.  Other than saying, 'I'm going to college', she has done nothing.  So I think a certification program would be perfect for her. Whether dental or medical....it would be a good stepping stone for a kid not that interested in academics at the moment.

[Scarlett]

18 minutes ago, plaidpants said:

Yes, I agree with that. Or a patient care tech. Or other allied health.

I'm not sure MD and PA even have new LPNs. There might be 2 (more like 3 or 4 with prereq) year RNs, but most are BSN or bridging those that only had a RN into BSN. All the community colleges have loads of allied health tech programs here.

Maybe that is a regional situation because from what I can see there are still a ton of LPN jobs.  My niece had multiple offers and worked full time for several years.  

[City Mouse]

When my DS was looking at Nursing, he liked the nursing school at UTMB Galveston. It is a bachelor’s degree program, but the students must complete the 60ish hours of prerequisite courses at another school first, so basically an associate degree in pre-nursing. We don’t live in Tx anymore, but that was similar to requirements in our current state. Here in New Mexico he would have needed 2 years of prerequisites before even applying to the nursing program at the community college. Then the nursing program was another 2 yrs for  RN but without a bachelor’s degree. 
 

A few years back when I was thinking of changing careers to nursing, I found out it would take me 4 years due to the sequence of courses needed, and I decided I didnt want to go back to school for that long.

[chiguirre]

6 hours ago, Scarlett said:

Well the niece in Houston doesn't need to work, I was just telling about my niece in AR for a reference point.  But if she goes to a CC I would think she could get her LPN in 2 years.  Right?  And since this girl is not super academic maybe she should just work for a bit after she gets her LPN.

My older niece in Houston did the whole 4 year thing and got her BSN.

Here is a nice summary of all the options at Lone Star College. Other large CCs will have similar offerings:

https://www.lonestar.edu/programs-of-study/nursing.htm

There is a one year program in vocational nursing, but it doesn't seem to cut time off of the RN program. They also offer a BSN now, but you start with the RN and then continue on to the BSN program.